Russia and Belarus resolve year-long disagreement
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Belarus have resolved their gas-related disputes.
The disagreement between Russia and Belarus about gas shipments started in 2016. Minsk said that it had made its own price calculations for the gas and reached the conclusion that its price was roughly twice as high as it should be, arguing that a fair price would be $73 per cubic meter.
“We have found a scheme in which we keep our approaches, but bring together our positions on the cost,” Putin said at a press conference at the end of the negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
According to him, the leaders of the two states “have found a way to make mutual concessions”.
“Matters of refinancing Belarus’s debt to Russia will be dealt with today and tomorrow,” Lukashenko said.
Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, explained that the national leaders’ negotiations resulted in an agreement that Minsk would pay its debt for Russian gas amounting to roughly $700 million, after which Gazprom would give the country a discount, starting in 2018, Interfax reports.
Putin and Lukashenko’s meeting took place in Strelna in St. Petersburg, and lasted more than five hours.
Recently Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed certainty that the relations between Moscow and Minsk would continue on the principles of equality and mutual trust.